BUSINESS COLUMN
We need to ask: Do we really have a recipe for
successful professionals?
• Early fixed mind-set that could lead to an inability
to cope with change
• Extreme regard for technical expertise that could
lead to perfectionism and inflexibility in all areas
of life
• A high need for autonomy and perceived
resilience that could lead to control freakishness
and micro-management
• Poor ethical and moral reasoning skills that could
lead to poor decisions because of conflicting
ethical reasoning.
There is no doubt that these norms associated with
veterinary professional identity can cause stress,
anxiety and undermine wellbeing and self-esteem.
These issues have three very important implications
1 Fixed Identity and a Changed Reality.
Unfortunately from day one of being in practice
vets are faced with the stark reality of dealing with
clients and patients in a commercial world – things
go wrong - exposing then suddenly to a catalogue of
real and perceived threats to technical competence,
dedication, resilience and ethical and moral
challenges such as:
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Complaints & mistakes
Anaesthetic deaths/treatment failure
Rejection/questioning of treatment options
Rejection/questioning of competence
Clinical perfectionism vs. pragmatism
Appraisals and feedback
Disciplinary proceedings
Job dissatisfaction or loss
Illness & stress
Accountability & targets
Euthanasia
Commercial accountability
Research shows that technical competence threats
in particular, can have catastrophic psychological
effects for individuals who have invested heavily
in their identity as prof essionals. (Mellanby and
Herrtage’s 2004) Other studies have shown that
other professionals (doctors) who had experienced
a current or recent complaint were at increased risk
of moderate/severe depression, anxiety and suicidal
ideation. (Bourne and others 2015)
2. “Who am I” and “What do I do” Mismatch.
These three identity themes are completely at odds
with the widely held ‘Veterinary Myth’ held by the
public, vet students and academics and espoused by
the profession at all levels. The Myth says that vets act
out of Altruism - that veterinary professionals should
put the interests and welfare of others before their
own; and Social Justice - the veterinary profession
should, in the interest of fairness, provide equal
opportunities of care to all clients. Nearly all veterinary
students start their training with these beliefs intact
and they are reinforced by their academic training.
However they struggle to survive in the commercial
real-life world of veterinary practice but the need to
conform to the myth is still there.
As a result vets are robbed of their primary purposeful
belief in who they are and what they do. Student
vets enter the profession with a distorted view of the
professions expectations, an incompatible professional
identity and a fixed mindset. This can psychologically
damaging and undermine resilience.
3. Veterinary career choices.
Because self-identification with the veterinary
profession is far stronger than identification with either
a particular organisation or their own values and beliefs,
they seek organisations where their identity is a good
fit and makes it less likely that veterinary professionals
will adopt organisational rules, participate in activities
or promotions or act ‘as the organisation’ they don’t
believe in.
With the increasing corporatisation of the veterinary
profession, and trends towards employment rather
than self-employment, individuals will increasingly
need to work within organisational values.
Can Commercialism help? The same research
suggests that ‘Commercialism’ is of least importance
to vet students in terms of desirable character traits
and of low importance to their academic tutors.
Veterinary professionals equate being a commercial
organisation with being unethical. However the reality
of veterinary practices puts commercialism centre
stage as a pragmatic necessity of business. This is why
the fundamental pets versus profit paradox issue is so
hard – it is an ethical problem of identity.
Practices and the profession have a significant
challenge to manage the pets versus profit paradox.
The veterinary profession has at its core a moral and
purpose vacuum and a battle raging as Commercialism
tries to replace Altruism & Social Justice as our sense
of purposeful identity at the very beginning of our
careers.
However Commercialism can be a pathway back to
Purpose.
We need to find a way to be commercially successful
that is ethically acceptable to the profession.
One way to address this is to redefine and expand the
definition of commercialism to include balancing 4
conflicting outcomes of:
• clinical care,
• financial viability,
• client experience
Issue 02 | MAY 2019 | 13